There and Back Again
by armin44
Summary: (set after 689 & based on 679 cover page) What if Team 7 travels to another reality, full of magic and things they have never seen before? But are they the only ones that travelled to another reality? (Slight LOTR, mostly self-made fantasy world; T for language)
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

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**It's not exactly set in LOTR universe, rather a quite diverse fantasy world with magic, dragons and adventures. Instead of being a full chapter, it's a quick preview as to what this fic will be about :) Enjoy!**

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The last thing Naruto remembered was a loud explosion and bright colours flashing in front of his eyes. Then - all-consuming darkness and complete silence.

It was unbearable for his outgoing and ecstatic persona, to say the least, and he wasn't sure how much time passed before he finally felt something.

Wind blew his hair as he slowly opened his eyes and gazed up at the bright-blue skies with only a handful of clouds floating around, looking all inviting for his sleepiness.

'When _was _the last time I had a normal eight-hours sleep?' he wondered off-handedly, checking for information at the back of his mind. 'Eh, it seems I slept just fine a night ago. I bet Sakura didn't even close her eyes and was probably worrying the whole time... Sakura!'

Suddenly, the memories came back at a full blow, making him gasp for air and swiftly sit up. Wasn't he in the middle of fight with Kaguya? Well, him and that Uchiha baka...

As he looked around, Uzumaki's eyes fell upon four familiar figures that laid around him, all seemingly lifeless or at least completely unconscious. He jumped up without thinking and ran towards them without a second thought.

"Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-chan! Oi, teme!"

None of them responded and Naruto bit on his finger, his mind racing of what to do next.

'Well, it's worth checking if they are actually alive, damn it!'

He squatted down in front of Kakashi that happened to be lying not two meters away from him and it took him good twenty seconds to finally find pulse on his wrist. Sighing, he walked towards his teammates, just to make sure they were alive, too, and finally flopped on the ground when the other two turned out to be alive and breathing.

'Do I wake them up now? But then Sakura-chan will probably hit me in the head... Besides, how would they know where we are?'

Only then did Naruto noticed that something was off - that is, besides seeming endless field around them and unnaturally blue skies; their clothes weren't the same as when they fought against Kaguya. Oh no, it wasn't only that they weren't the same - they were _nothing _alike shinobi's attire, no matter how weird it seemed at times.

Instead of his ordinary attire, Naruto didn't fail to notice that he now wore brown boots, somewhat dirty green trousers, rather heavy hauberk and seemingly leather gloves (but what would he know - he never wore clothes that weren't made from cotton!).

His teammates were still unconscious and, after resisting from drawing something on Sasuke's face simply because there was nothing around to draw with. Pondering for some time as to what he should occupy himself with in the meantime, Naruto decided that there was no harm in walking around and looking out for... something.

As he stood up with a heavy sigh - for some reason his bones felt much heavier and he sensed the beginning of a huge migraine at the back of his mind - he processed to turn around and squint his eyes due to the bright sun up in the skies.

Nope. Nothing within his field of vision. Only green fields, boiling air... Did he just hear some splashing?

He abruptly turned around towards the source of that sound and, upon hearing some more splashing, ran through the grass that almost reached his belly like crazy. Boy was it hot in this ridiculously massive hauberk - why the heck was he wearing it in the first place?! Not stopping for a second, he lifted it up and off himself, throwing it to the side and not caring what's gonna happen to it.

He had some more important things to think about.

"Yatta!" he shouted happily; a slim brook that was hidden behind the tall grass finally appeared before his own sky-blue eyes and he couldn't help jumping due to his fit of excitement at the pleasant sight in front of him.

Without thinking much, he fell to his knees and drank right from the brook, giving out a pleased hum. Slightly icy and extremely refreshing, it streamed down his face and he beamed at the thought that, unlike some of the guys of his age, he still didn't even have a resemblance of a beard or moustache, hence water wasn't just... stuck there.

Naruto shook his head as he sat back and looked around with a small smile, pondering over where can this beautiful place possibly be. Judging by the fact that it was immensely hot, he suspected it was somewhere in the Wind country, yet the grass beneath him didn't seem dry at all and the small brook was quite cool to touch.

So... where the heck were they?

Some time passed by and he realised that he didn't hear any sound; no birds' chirping, no rustling leaves... the place would be heavenly for meditations, if only it wasn't so freaking boiling!

He shrugged at his thoughts and ducked down for another gulp of refreshing water...

"Bakaero!"

BAM. SLAM.

Not a moment later a punch sent him flying over the brook and right into the grass beyond it; well, he had to admit that it was a good five meters away from his original position and, owching and wincing, he looked over his shoulder with a guilty smile, "Sa-akura-chan."

"When you are in the middle of nowhere do you always just go around, looking for trouble and completely forgetting about your teammates that can die while they are lying unconscious on the ground?!" she growled and he could just feel her left eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"Um-m, no," he answered truthfully and scratched his head, getting up. He then proceeded to swipe off some of the dirt from his trousers, but that didn't seem to work all too well. "Are Sasuke-teme and Kakashi-sensei awake?"

"We are here, dobe," came a gruff reply as the two man came closer. Sasuke seemed to be rather pissed off with the unnaturally tall grass, all the while Kakashi turned out to be completely unfazed, giving out a friendly, "Yo."

Naruto couldn't hold back the laugher at what his teammates turned out to be wearing and was met with somewhat bemused and annoyed gazes.

"We know we are wearing something extremely weird, Naruto, no need to point it out," Sakura said exasperatedly, although she stepped closer to the only source of water around and looked at her reflection. She then squinted and looked back at Naruto. "It's weird that we are wearing same boots and gloves, you know. And anyway, go pick up your hauberk - it may save your life in future."

Naruto shrugged and did as he was told - there was no reason for arguing with her anyway and they _all _knew it.

"So, does anyone know where exactly are we?" Kakashi mused as he, too, looked down at his reflection and appeared to be happy with the long blue cloak that covered most of his body. "We fought with Kaguya and then we wake up here. Genjutsu?"

"I would know if it was one," Sasuke stated coldly and Naruto couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes - not that he wanted to, anyway.

"And if it was, why would she do all this?" Sakura wondered aloud. "Create these fields, change our clothes... What purpose would it serve her?"

"If only we knew," sighed their teacher and all four of them began thinking.

About five minutes later they gave up, not having a single clue as to what was going on, and decided to find some shadow as, quite strangely, there were absolutely no trees around - hence the lack of birds, as Naruto supposed.

When his two loud-mouth students got into a fight as to which direction they should go in (obviously, Sasuke just stayed silent and looked around for any sort of danger), Hatake tugged onto his ear and pointed at a random direction, claiming that his ninja senses tell him it's that way.

Obviously, he lied, and strangely they actually believed him without questioning.

Good half an hour later they finally encountered a cart with hay; its owner - an old man with an incredibly large beard (in fact, it was so long the man placed it on the mount of hay for it to stop disturbing him) - was carelessly whistling something under his nose. That is, until he saw a small group of strangers that looked extremely lost.

"Hey ya, do ya need any help?" he asked upon stopping his cart and grinning at the group.

"Oi, old man, do you know where the closest city is?" Naruto loudly asked and jumped forward, his eyes full of hope and desperation - if he had to live any more without proper food he was going to simply break down and never get up again.

'No wonder Shikamaru once called me a drama queen,' he chuckled in his mind.

"Ay, that's exactly where I'm goin' now, young lad," cart's owner replied and scratched his moustache. "But that's gonna cost ya a pretty bunch of fifteen silver pennies."

Naruto hummed and dugged hands into his pockets, looking for at least _something. _As he expected, it was pointless - the same was with his teammates.

"Sorry, but we don't have any... silver pennies. We can give you something in return, though," Sakura mused and looked down at her gloves. "See, those are leather - and my teammate has a pair of those, too."

The man snorted and his accent was suddenly gone, "And what good would those do? Leather is rather cheap in my city and if I were to sell it for something more, I would have to travel for a good five days. Now, give me something good or I am leaving."

"Hey! I am Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo, and the inchuuriki of a Nine-tailed. You don't want to deal with Leaf's Hokage," blond growled, loosing all patience in seconds.

"Jin-what? Never heard of that before!" he smirked. "Some nine-tails and hokages you are blabbering about... Maybe, sun got to you."

After a moment of confused silence, he added, "But I am willing to take that nice hauberk you seem to own."

Naruto looked down and sighed, "Well, it seems Sakura-chan was right. Here, take it." He quickly raised his hands and threw said hauberk into man's greedy hands; the latter one swiftly checked if it was indeed metal.

"Hmm, seems alright. Get on, all of you."

There was nothing to talk about as they got on; for some unbeknown reason, the man seemed to have no clue as to who jinchuuriki was and neither did he hear anything about Hokages. Perhaps, they really were in a genjutsu?

A cart shook as it rode over a pile of stones, which caused everyone to lean back a little. At the same time, Sasuke's hair moved backwards and Kakashi caught a glimpse of something he didn't believe at first.

"Sasuke," he began slowly - maybe his eyesight was lying to him?

"Hn."

"Let me see your ears."

He didn't miss how quickly Naruto and Sakura's heads turned towards him.

"What?! Did that snake creep do something to his ears?" Naruto asked in disbelieve and barely held down his laugh. "I told you not to go with him; although, things could've gone worse - for all we know, he could have replaced your legs with your arms and stuff."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Stop talking." He then moved some of the hair away, so that they could see his ears.

This time Naruto couldn't hold back his roaring laughter and Sakura silently gaped at the sight before her eyes; Kakashi only raised his eyebrow.

"At least now we know for certain that this is some sort of genjutsu."

"Sasuke-kun, you..." Sakura swallowed. "You look like an... elf."

Due to the completely disbelieving face and somewhat annoyed, "What?" she told him to touch his ears, already anticipating his outburst.

A second. Two. Three.

Sasuke finally touched his ear and, without a hush, ran his fingers over the edge of it.

Silence.

"What the fuck."

"Ha-ha-ha, I told you that you should stop being a jerkface or else!" shouted Naruto and received a loud BAM to his head. "Oi, watch it!"

"At least she didn't change anything about the rest of us," Kakashi noticed as he checked his own ear and lifted cloak to see if his legs and arms were alright. Yep, everything seemed fine - no extra arms or fingers.

"So, are we some kind of magic creatures now?" Sakura wondered aloud and she could swear she heard a murmured 'that bitch Kaguya' from Sasuke.

"Except for the teme, we don't seem any different. Oh, but does it mean we have some sort of superpowers now?!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly and got to his feet, eager to try out supposedly new abilities.

Kakashi sighed, "Not like you didn't have them after meeting the God of everything chakra-related."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Sakura and Kakashi only exchanged glanced, sighing. As strong as he was, Naruto was never the smart one.

"Go on, try something," Sakura urged her teammate and, with a big smile, he did as he was told.

"Yosh!" the boy concentrated his inner energy and put his palms forward. "Hnnnnn!"

There was nothing. Instead of a cool burst of energy, not only was Naruto left with nothing, but, upon checking his own chakra, he realised with a startle that there was none.

No chakra whatsoever.

"Hey, old man!"

"What?" cart's owner replied gruffly without turning around.

"Is there chakra around here?"

"Chakra? What's that?"

"Um-m, it's like some special abilities. It's the kind of energy that gives you some awesome powers," he explained lamely, all the while his teammates face-palmed themselves behind his back.

"I see he remembers his lessons in Academy very well," Sakura said with a twitching eye and no one could say otherwise.

"Ah, you mean magic? Nah, not much around here. But if you go Central, you will meet a lot of magicians that are strong to no end! Damn, they can kill you with a pinky!"

"Oh, that's cool! So how do you obtain these magic powers?"

"You can't obtain them, stupid - there is so little left that magic is only placed in object. Those who have the strongest magic objects are considered the strongest magicians."

"Basically, if you are born rich, your chance of being one are sky high," Sakura said to Kakashi with a slight frown. "Patriarchy at its best."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," he agreed, scratching his cheek. Kakashi then looked at the man that was so 'kind' as to help them get to the city. "It's a shame that only Sasuke got something changed, though. I would love to have a beard."

This time all of his students turned their heads to him without a moment of hesitation.

"But, see, I can't take off my mask," he shrugged and shook his head. "Because if I do, all of you might just fall in love with me."

He smirked under his mask when Sakura and Naruto wailed at their teacher's stupidity and Sasuke just turned around, looking towards where they came from.

"You feel like something is off, Sasuke," Hatake said and it was a statement, rather than a question.

"Yeah. Something is coming."

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**A/N: Winter is coming!**

**Hehe, well, we'll see if it's actually coming.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and please tell me what you think on this story so far, this will motivate me and the update will come quicker ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

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When they finally reached the city that old man spoke about, the sun was setting and they had to think quickly of where they will stay for night.

"Best of luck, you four," cart's owner said and waved at them. They waved in return, all but Sasuke feeling rather exhausted and hungry.

"I wonder if they have ramen cafe somewhere here," Naruto spoke up as they walked around the city. It appeared that the old man dropped them off at its very edge, seeming as there weren't that many people, as well as shops or houses. The life here seemed quiet and calm, much like life in little villages in their own world.

"I doubt that; these people clearly don't have much money," said Sakura, albeit following him and checking for caffe shops or market. It didn't take her long to locate the city's market - she could hear people shouting all around about how high the given prices were and a mixed response of 'there is no other choice' and 'take it or get out of here'. Truthfully, she wasn't used to this kind of life; kunoichi always believed that Leaf wasn't your typical village and, what with food supplies being rather high, things weren't going that bad. "I'll go check out the market."

"Okay, then Naruto will look for his ramen shops," Kakashi slowly nodded. "I will look for hotels - if there are any - and Sasuke... Sasuke, you can look for weapon shops, seeing as we don't have any on us."

"Why would we need weapons? The old man said that it's a small city and there aren't many strong magicians here," Naruto said while folding his hands behind his head.

"You are a shinobi but you already know that we don't have our chakra at the moment. So turn on your shinobi senses or at least look around for danger," Hatake slightly nodded to his left. "Did you lose your sixth sense along the way?"

Uzumaki huffed but did check around from the corners of his eyes. Albeit the street looking completely safe and sound, he then saw a squad of three tall and muscly man just around the corner. Two of them seemed to be carrying axes and knives - although they tried to hide them under their coats, it didn't take him long to realise what exactly it was they were hiding. The third one seemed the most secretive and simply hand his hands in his pockets. Unlike his comrades, he wasn't wearing a coat or at least a cloak - instead, he wore a short-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of dirty brown trousers. Where could he possibly hide his weapons?

"I got you, Kakashi-sensei," he said quietly and nodded. "When do we meet?"

"Meet here in an hour; if you aren't here by this time, the rest goes looking for you," Kakashi instructed them and his three students gave him a swift nod.

'Feels like the old days, doesn't it?' he thought to himself and didn't fail to notice how amazingly quiet his students were. Although they seemed to be standing out of the crowd - especially Sakura with her pink hair - the three of them walked past whoever stood on their way without disturbing them and caused little to none of people's attention. One of the main ninja rules - be quiet and unnoticable; that, they clearly mastered.

He heavily sighed to himself - finding a hotel seemed to be the hardest task out of the four. The houses all seemed the same, so, really, did he have a good chance of finding a place for them to stay in overnight?

It then clicked in his head; back in Konoha, what were the majority of hotels' owners like? Old and grumpy, right? Well, he just needed to find some like those.

Kakashi walked past the group of chatting teenagers that had weirdly shaped eyes, almost like eagles, and two man that talked about work, both of which were almost twice taller than him.

It didn't take him as long as he expected to find an old woman that stood near one of the houses and smoked her tobacco.

"Good evening," he greeted her, hoping that it was a right sort of greeting here. "I just hoped that you could give me a few pointers here."

"Hm? What's up, young man?" she asked in her screechy voice, looking him up and down and frowning. "If you could perhaps take off your cloak, I would really appreciate it."

"Don't trust men with cloaks?" he supposed knowingly.

"Who would, in times like this." A sigh. "So, what do you need?"

Unlike his teacher, Sasuke had luck in finding weapon shop; in fact, there were shops with weapons on every corner, ranging between portable knives and heavy hatchets. He had plenty of time on his hands, but no money to buy all of these goods with. Was bargaining with the owner an option?

"I see you have a good taste," came a melodious voice from behind and Sasuke half-turned his head to look at the owner of this voice.

"Hn."

"Not the talking type? Alright," woman in her late twenties replied and shrugged. Apart from having elf-like ears - just like him - she had long purple hair and a dress that resembled a bunch of leaves being stuck together. She didn't seem all that dangerous, but he decided to be ready nevertheless. "Is there something particular you are looking for?"

"No. Just weapons," he responded and turned around; the woman caught a glimpse of his ears.

"Ah, so you are an elf, too? Don't see many of those here, if I'm being honest! Le sullon*!"

Sasuke squinted his eyes at the weird words

"Peditham hi sui vellyn?" she asked and tilted her head to the right. Uchiha didn't understand a word of what she said so he shook his head, not hiding his confusion.

"Hm, I'm afraid I am not quite familiar with Quenya dialect***, so we will have to speak Men's language for now," she murmured and went towards the stall to fix some of the weapon there. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen," he truthfully answered, seeing no reason as to why he should hide his age. Sasuke's response caused woman with purple hair to burst our laughing - she laughed so much, in fact, that she almost chocked on her laugh.

"Ah, so you are the silent type but you are funny," she remarked with a soft smile. A moment later, however, her face hardened and she looked back, checking how many people were in the shop. "It seems that you have humans as your friends, but don't you dare go this low as to compare yourself to Men. Or did you forget of what you were taught?"

Sasuke didn't say anything, instead doing the one thing he was exceptionally good at - he observed. Clearly, it appeared that in this world elves thought of themselves as being more important than humankind.

"These filthy humans took our lands and jobs, they decided that they can just take something that never belonged to them in the first place," she sneered but her ears perked up when she heard shop's doors. She stepped closer to Sasuke and gave him a crooked smile. "Well, I'm not here to get into argument with you. I'm Raina, by the way."

After a moment of silence, she asked, "And you are..?"

"Sasuke."

"That's a very strange name you have there, Sasuke, although who am I to judge? Tell me, Sasuke, why are you _really _here?"

Uchiha had no desire about sharing this piece of information with some half-naked woman, so he squinted his eyes at her and, grabbing a sword nearby, shoved it into woman's hands.

"How much is this?"

"Oh, don't joke around, will ya?" she chuckled and carefully put the sword back at its original place. Raina then put hands on her waist and looked at the weapon lovingly. "You don't look any different from those travellers that go from one town to another without any money and constantly begging for carts' owners to drop them by. You would only be able to buy this little fella here if you were a slave for about fifty years, no less. Made out of the best elvish metal by the best elvish masters in Central... It would be a dream to have one of those."

Sasuke glanced at the sword from the corner of his eyes and snorted, "I wouldn't give a kunai in exchange for this excuse of a sword but there seems to be nothing better around. What do you want?"

She chewed on her lower lip and he could hear her cursing under her breath. "An elf that thinks about humans being equal to us and disrespecting elves that are older than him? I wouldn't be surprised if you grew up on your own, with that attitude an all."

That off-handed comment hit home and Sasuke winced, his hands clenching into fists. He then leaned down, making sure the only customer beside his didn't realise what was going, "Now you listen to me. I killed, I tortured and I cut people into pieces. I will repeat again: what do you want in exchange for this weapon?"

If any of his old teammates were to find out, they would surely want to read a lecture on how to act like 'a proper human being and stop constantly threatening people'. Tough luck they weren't here.

The woman's eyes seemed to look less human and more eagle-like than before as she smirked at him - she obviously had something in mind.

"Have you seen guys outside my shop? A gang of three? Get rid of them and then you will take as much as you want from this shop."

The deal seemed too good, but, without further ado, Sasuke nodded; it seemed that this time his good looks didn't help him, though for once it was nice dealing with someone that belonged to the opposite gender that didn't care about how he looked. Of course, he wasn't going to admit that out loud.

"Hn. Do you expect me to fight them with bare hands?"

"No, but I can't give you anything expensive that you are most likely going to break. Hmm..." Raina walked around her little shop before finally shouting out 'aha!'

A moment later Sasuke was presented with bow and five arrows. Bows always reminded him of his childhood with happy family and older brother that took care of him. Now that he thought of it, when he was a child he thought of growing up and using it as his main weapon. Years later, however, his kunasagi was the best weapon he could hope for.

Still, his mind stored quite a few memories from that time, so if getting rid of some guys with a bow and a bunch of arrows was his way out... well, it wasn't like there were any free swords laying around, just waiting for Sasuke to pick them up.

"Ah. Be ready to pay me back."

"Don't be so arrogant, little brat."

Uchiha prodigy smirked and walked out of the show with the so-called weapon in his hands, eyes closed and self-confident smirk playing on his pale lips.

"Oi," he called out to the group of suspicious men his group spotted earlier. The said men turned around and looked at him expectantly. Sasuke half opened his eyes and leisurely looked at them. "I heard you were causing some trouble in the neighbourhood. I don't like it."

"Not that we cared about your opinion, princess," one of the men - with axes and some other weapon hidden underneath his coat - spoke up and sneered, allowing Sasuke to see a row of slightly yellow teeth. Most of his front teeth weren't in the best condition, to say the least, which made Sasuke think that man got into fights plenty of times before.

"Ah, but the one wearing a skirt isn't me," he said, nodding to the other man in the group, obviously referring to his kilt. Uchiha wasn't sure if wearing skirts was an ordinary thing here, seeing as in his own world merely any kunoichis wore skirts after joining juunin. Besides, was it actually comfortable fighting in one of those?

"What did you say, bastard?" the man in a kilt growled, clenching his jaw. He then looked to his comrade and nodded towards his hidden weapon. "Give me your axe."

"Just make sure to clean it afterwards," he chuckled darkly and threw Sasuke a dirty look. "Don't get you panties in a bunch when you lose a head. People here know us. They won't interrupt unless they lost their mind."

Indeed, Sasuke didn't fail to notice that most people around him were quickly retreating, some of which almost sprinting away and some pretending that they had things to do. One woman even fell to the ground, which caused her basket to drop, too, and all apples fell out, rolling down the ground and glinting in the rays of setting sun.

The woman didn't look back twice, instead picking herself up and swiftly walking away, making sure the hem of her skirt wasn't getting in the way.

"See how much these people are afraid of us," same man said, running his fingertips along the side of big axe in his hands. "Nothing but a livestock, really."

"And what makes you so different from them?"

"I'm glad you asked... Truth to be told, we aren't that different. Visually, that is. But when we are angered... let's just say things get out of hands very quickly."

Sasuke gave his opponent a one-over, silently deciding that beside the axe in his hands, the man held no power. Sure, he was bulky and rather intimidating, but it would only take a good hit to his legs and this 300 pounds mountain (although he was almost certain that the man's weight was higher than that) will fall to the ground, face right into the mud of dirt nearby.

He didn't even need his bow for this.

* * *

"What do you mean you don't know what ramen is?" Naruto gaped at the crowd in front of him. Some of them - he wasn't sure they were even classified as humans - exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders; others were rather pissed and told him to get out of the way, so that they could enjoy a hot, steaming soup in the nearby cafe. There were also those who didn't even try to hide their comments about him.

"Is it some fancy dish from Central?"

"Gosh, did rich people suddenly decide and came here, too?"

"I hate those rich brats that expect everything from a small city like ours! They should just get out!"

Blond sighed and scratched his nose, thinking of the best way he could explain what ramen was to these people without getting beaten up and called 'posh'.

"Ano, ramen is a simple dish, see?" he said with a soft smile. "Do you have noodles in this city?"

"We're not that poor!" shouted one of the women.

"Okay, so it's basically noodles mixed with a variety of other edible goods, all placed in a bowl of steaming water, much like the soup you lot enjoy eating." He dared to glance backwards and was once again met with an unpleasant picture of something that didn't come close to being called 'soup'. Damn, even Sakura could do better one with her eyes closed!

"Why would you mix noodles with something else? That's just mad!"

"Listen here, young lad, I'm not sure if you are aware of the fact that this place is quite poor, but unfortunately it is. We can afford basic necessities and goods but mixing food just for it to taste better..."

"No, but you will consume more nutritions at the same time!" Naruto said upon slapping his hand on the table, almost spilling soup. "This will give you more energy for work, too! Oi, chef, give me all the pork you have!"

"We don't have pork..."

"Ah, mmhmm... do you have anything meat related at all? What about eggs? Vegetables? Any of these will do."

"Coming right up, kiddo!"

After receiving noodles, he checked them and cringed, "Jee, how long have _these _been laying around for?"

"For a few weeks or months, most likely."

"For a few-" Naruto almost fainted; that's what happened when you got used to the good and fresh stuff - it was abruptly taken away from you. "I don't suppose you have wheat?"

"Oh, if only," the man chuckled. "Everyone would be much happier with cooking something by themselves than receiving dry noodles in packs. All of these come from central."

Uzumaki rolled his eyes, yet he still rolled up his sleeves. "Okay, then let's get down to business. You will thank me later."

His only response was a few people cheering and others grumbling that it was a bad idea.

* * *

"Strange things are happening in this town recently. People are suddenly acting completely different to what they used to act like in the past. I think it might be magic, miss, but why would anyone decide to do such a thing to a small city like this? I doubt we've ever done anything to people out there that would anger them enough as to put a spell on our town."

"Are you sure it's a spell?" Sakura asked, biting onto her apple and internally smiling - it has been a long time since she ate something besides bread, eggs and some other food, image and the disgusting smell of which was forever carved in her mind. "Maybe they have relatives outside the city and something is happening there, which is a cause of their concern?"

"Oh, no, I'm sure they are acting differently. There were even rumours," he looked around, checking if anyone was listening and leaned in closer, putting a hand to his mouth so that no one could lip-read what he said. "That there is a demon - in fact, a dozen on those and after promising to do something for the victim, they suck out all of their emotions."

She couldn't hold back her laugher - even though this world was completely different to hers, it was unthinkable that people _actually _believed in demons. She would rather believe in people being replaces.

"Don't laugh! I knew I shouldn't share this piece of information with some stranger," old man said, clicking his tongue.

"Gomen, gomen, it's just that... where I come from, we don't believe in demons."

"Then what _do _you believe in?"

Sakura looked up at the skies and the last rays of sun were disappearing in a thin air, leaving behind a mere resemblance of warmth and comfort. She softly smiled and looked back at the man.

"There are way too many things I believe in, one of them being hope. And I'd love to stay and help you in resolving this mystery but me and my companions are rather busy, so I will have to excuse myself."

"W-wait! You and your friends... you are travellers, right?"

"Mmhmm."

"What are you looking for?"

She sighed, "We don't know that ourselves. But we ought to find it."

"How can you search for something and not even know what it is you are looking for?"

"I suppose ordinary people would call us... spontaneous."

The man huffed in slight disbelieve, "I doubt you would be able to help us if you stayed but I sure hope that you will come back and help us solve this mystery when you find what you were looking for all along."

Sakura awarded him with a nod, although inwardly she winced. When they find this 'something' - a way out, a resolve to the great mystery as to why were they here in the first place and other what-nots, they will no longer stay here. And why would they?

She suddenly heard people shouting - it came from the main street where she and her team were dismissed not twenty minutes ago. 'I swear to God, it it's Naruto I will slay that damn brat with my own hands,' she thought to herself darkly and clenched the apple that she was holding. Old man beside her shrieked and stepped away, seeing how physically strong this girl was.

"Your... your friends?"

"I won't be surprised if that's so."

* * *

**A/N: I already said that it's slightly based on LOTR, so I will leave the Elvish language be and occasionally use some of the phrases (apart from that, all races will have different history and will mostly feel different about mankind).**

***Le sullon! - I greet you! Litetal: I greet [reverential] you!**

****Peditham hi sui vellyn? - May we speak as friends now? Literal: We will speak now as friends**

*****Quenya - correct me if I'm wrong, but there are basically two main dialects (?) in elvish: Sindarin and Quenya, so Raina (Rine-ah) supposed that Sasuke speaks Quenya. The Sindarin that Raina uses is of "****3rd age Elves west of the Misty Mountains, influenced by the exiled Noldor". Obviously, in this case I don't have Misty Mountain and neither do I own Noldor.**

**Oh yeah, ya'll should definitely check out Sasuke with a bow, if you haven't already! Like, I missed out all filler episodes and then - bam! That's an actual thing from anime!**


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

* * *

**Thank you oh so much for sweet reviews, here is chapter 3! Yes, updates for this story will be pretty quick because I love this idea wayyy too much so I'm only concentration on this atm.**

**I am listening to people's suggestions and would love to hear what people think should be included in this story, hence I can still go off my tangent and lead this story in different direction (like team 7 having a goal, other than getting out of this world).**

**After looking through this chapter, I realised I might've accidentally implied SasuSaku, so I fixed that moment a bit and wanted to let you know that I'm not sure whether I should include any ships in this story and if so, which ones. However, I will gladly listen to your ideas (NaruHina, SasuSaku and SuiKa are the ships I am willing to work with).**

**Bah enough with the blabbering, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Being Hokage's apprentice meant a lot of things in forming one's character. First of all, one learned discipline and focus, otherwise dealing with a humongous tower of documents would be close to impossible. Secondly, one held some kind of authority over others as he or she was now recognised by the rest of the village and respected by others.

However, there was one more aspect of being Hokage's apprentice that Sakura absolutely loathed - dealing with fights. Due to her being such an important persona - or so people thought - they saw it as her duty to deal with any kind of fights between civilians to keep streets at peace. She never minded breaking off the fights between Naruto and Sai, but otherwise it was just plain tiring.

So now, as she stood a few meters away from Sasuke - far enough that he couldn't see her in building's shadow - she resisted an urge to facepalm herself. Yes, she expected Naruto to pick up a fight with someone - in fact, she almost anticipated it which would take away some of the stress she was harbouring - but Sasuke? What has gotten into him?

Sure, he changed since the last time they saw each other, but so much as to become a fighter? Sakura winced at the memory of his cold hands clothing around her throat.

However, as she was about to interfere, Sasuke seemed to deal with the problem just fine. A few accurate kicks in stranger's legs and right above his Adam apple, and the man laid on the ground, struggling to speak.

"What was that about you being dangerous when you are angered?" Sasuke asked coldly, picking up the axe that laid at his feet and holding it against rogue's throat.

The man's eyes twitched and his whole face seemed to confront with anger and pure hate. He then let out a soft whistle, "No need to be so confident of yourself, princess."

A moment was all it took for axe to suddenly slip out of Sasuke's hands and attack him. Just before it cut off his head, Uchiha ducked and, in a few quick strides, was on the other side of the street from murderous axe. The very few that were still present on the street gasped and tried hiding before barns and branches.

Now was about the right time to step in. Looking around for any sort of weapon, Sakura noticed a rusty scythe and, without thinking, picked it up and ran out of the shadow.

"The heck did you get yourself in, Uchiha?" she growled as she stood next to him and blocked axe's attack. "Me and Kakashi weren't gone for longer than twenty minutes and-"

"Tch. Give me that."

Sakura gave him a dubious look but decided to let him do what he wanted anyway.

However, it only took her thirty seconds to realise that it wasn't the right thing to do - well, not really.

Blink - and Sasuke ducked from another attack, tugging onto Sakura's sleeve so that she wouldn't be left head-less.

Blink - he put pressure into his feet and ran towards his opponent that already picked himself up and was now looking at the fight before him in some sort of fascination.

Blink - and the rusty scythe was raised over man's head; said man's face was slowly changing from arrogant to that of scared sheep.

Blink - and she couldn't utter a word when the scythe was centimeters away from slicing man's head into two halves.

'Will he actually do it? Will he kill a man so mercilessly? Is that the Sasuke-kun that I'm supposed to get accustomed to from now on? Will he do the same to me or Naruto if we will mean some kind of danger?'

But then again, she knew - or she thought she knew - of what this man was capable of. He killed before - she knew that much - but only after he killed Itachi and a crazy idea of making the whole village pay for his family's death came into his head. From what she knew, he only killed two people while capturing Killer B. Were there more that she knew nothing of?

Blink - and her loud "Sasuke-kun!" pierced the air, making civilians look at her with terror.

Will it help?

Scythe stopped - only for a moment - before Sasuke sliced both of man's arms off. Just above his elbows.

The silence was deafening. Pinkette wasn't sure if something around her was happening at all.

All she _could _see was Sasuke's back that sctraightened as he stood up and whiped the blood off weapon with rogue's sleeve.

All she could hear was her heart, racing hundred miles per hour, making it impossible to hear or _breathe, _for that matter.

It wasn't the vigour of the attack that shocked her so much - it was that he stopped and didn't kill the man, only getting rid of his hands.

That's when connection between their enemy and axe broke, so axe fell to the floor with a loud thud.

It only took her mind a few seconds to sort itself out and suddenly everything was happening at extreme speed. She felt her heartbeat slowing down and world around her moving once again.

She heart screams, full of agony - and it didn't matter that she knew whose fault it was. They were shinobi. She should be used to this kind of stuff by now.

Only she wasn't.

It didn't matter to her if people whose faces she distinctively knew sliced their enemies and killed everyone that stood on their way.

It was completely different when her comrade - although she doubted she could call Sasuke that anymore, after all that has taken places - almost killed a man without a serious reason to do so.

He could've knocked him off and Sakura was sure it would break the link between the two. Yet he decided to follow the bloody path.

But he didn't _murder _that man. And her heart ached when she realised that his old teammates still mattered to him - at least a little.

"Sakura," a gravely and dark voice - one she knew all too well sounded right next to her and she looked up. It appeared that while she was dozing off, Sasuke turned around from the man and walked towards her, now standing right in front of her eyes.

There wasn't any warmth in those eyes - not that she expected any, to be honest - but there wasn't any hate either. Just... plain uninterest.

"Don't interrupt me next time."

So she was right.

He _did _change since the last time they saw each other, but she wasn't that sure if his new coldness was much better that his previous murderous mood.

Back then he went out to kill and take out his revenge.

Now? She wasn't so sure anymore.

Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. If she told him about her thoughts on the matter, it would only piss him off and would probably ensure him threatening her.

Then... she had to pretend like it didn't mean anything to her.

"I advise you to look for a loch of some sorts. I'm not going to question it but I'm sure Naruto will wonder why your clothes are covered in blood and you reek of metal."

Sasuke didn't look down for a second, looking into her eyes with cold determination, but she was the one to look away.

She couldn't bare droplets of blood falling from his hair and him not giving a slightest shit about it like it was an ordinary thing.

xxxx

G'Arr lived an overall ordinary life. He grew up in a family with both parents and seven siblings, experienced the poverty and realised how unfair life was. However, his decision to make the world better went so far before he decided to give up and turn to thievery and blackmailing.

Life was easier this way, he thought. But he thought so until a bastard with black hair and piercing eyes cut both of his arms off, leaving him in a pool of his own blood, shouting and begging for help. At the back of his mind he realised that there was barely anyone around and his so-called 'friends' were long gone, after seeing just how dangerous this guy was.

The pain, however, prevented him from thinking coherently and his moans and groans soon seethed down to mere whispers. His consciousness was giving up and something powerful and dark was taking over his mind. Was he going to... die? The jerk decided to let him suffer before he died and it didn't make him his direct killer.

He wasn't sure of hows and whys but between all this pain and suffering he felt a pair of cold hands touching him and lifting him up with a lot of grunting. Two hands that were so small his first thought was 'why is some kid lifting me up?'

Then - soothing 'Tss, I got you'. He didn't fully comprehend what happened and whether it was an angel of death that was talking to him. All he felt was incredible pain and something ice-cold touching the... remains of his arm.

Scream of agony - he supposed it was his own - echoed through empty streets. A moment later hard kick in his stomach made him come to himself; although it didn't make the pain any less unbearable, his eyes were finally able to concentrate on something and make out his surroundings.

First thing that he saw was pink - a bright but ordinary colour for their city. Pale skin. Green eyes. Actually, this creature's eyes were so green that the back of his mind screamed 'forest fairy!' at him. But it was laughable - those didn't come out and kept little to no contact with people - even more so than elves.

"Hey, listen! What's your name?"

Silence.

"Don't fall asleep, you can't fall asleep now, dammit!"

"G'Arr," he finally uttered and coughed, feeling his insides burn.

"Garr?"

"G'Arr!"

"Ah." His mind noticed that the girl was a teenager and, at a closer look, was wearing ordinary human clothes. "G'Arr, I need you to look at me - I will have to leave soon so I will let medics take care of you. For now I just need to make sure no more blood leaves your body, okay?"

Without receiving an answer, girl look out belt from her trousers and cut it into two. Then, whispering something akin a prayer, she leaned towards him and began wrapping one of the pieces around the remains oh his left arm.

He fought against the urge to fall asleep but it won and his head fell to the ground, his mind blanking out completely.

Just a few minutes ago this girl was with the guy that did this to him. Why the heck was she helping him?

xxxx

By the time Kakashi got back to the place of their meeting, all three of his students were back. He assured himself that he wasn't late - the big clock at the top of nearby barn told him so - hence he didn't expect any complains or old 'Kakashi-sensei, you are late!'.

Nonetheless, what he didn't expect was complete silence from two of his students. Sure, Sasuke was never the spokeman of their group, but what about Sakura? She seemed more quiet than usual and, instead of chatting with Naruto, oddly sat on the ground and was deep in thoughts.

At least Naruto didn't fail to act as his usual self, what with his neverending blabbering and 'exciting' story of how he taught 'a bunch of uneducated people' how to cook ramen.

"I see you are all done," he said cheerily, nodding towards the bag of fruits and vegetables near Sakura's feet and half-empty bowls of ramen on Naruto's lap. "Sasuke, did you find a decent shop with weapons?"

"Hn. The owner allowed us to take anything we wanted."

"Oh? And how did you persuade her? Used your Uchiha charm on her?" Hatake said with a smirk, trying to ease the atmosphere but it seemed to become even worse after his words, if Sasuke's silence and Sakura's stiffened shoulders were any indicators. "In any case, I found a place for us to stay overnight, so we can wonder about for a bit longer before resting. Sasuke, lead the way to that shop you talked about."

Sasuke didn't give him any response, other than turning around and heading towards the said shop. Unlike Naruto's energetic "Let's goooo", Sakura silently stood up and followed her teammates.

Something was definitely up.

It was a short walk away from the place they met at, so Kakashi was glad - he got enough of walking around some dodgy streets and looking for an old person that was old enough to own a hotel but not too old that he or she would have marasmus.

A shop they entered wasn't as small as Kakashi imagined - in fact, it was rather space-y and managed to hold a good few hundreds weapons. Stealing a quick glance at the quiet exchange of words between Sasuke and shop's owner. Then, a woman in her late twenties quickly looked at them and nodded.

"Pick whatever you like."

He couldn't miss a little hiss she let out at the end. Did she... hate them? Whatever for? She didn't seem as negative towards Sasuke.

Either way, it wasn't so important now. Instead, Hatake decided to look around for kunai and, possibly, shuriken. Admitedly, he was alright with swords but he wasn't as used to fighting with them as most of some of the people he knew in ANBU.

"If you're looking for a stick, I don't own any, _warlock," _he heard right next to his ear but he pretended that he expected it. Slowly, he turned his head towards the woman and looked right into her eyes that seemed smaller than those of a human. A quick glance to her ears made him inwardly smirk - so she was an elf, too.

How would _she _know that he was a warlock if he didn't know of that himself? Either way, questioning her would be stupid - she would probably not understand and laugh it off. _As if a bunch of humans could suddenly wake up in a completely different place and become some fairy-tail creatures!_

"I'm looking for small but effective weapons. Shurinken and kunai will do," he told her calmly which earned him a loud laugh.

"I thought you were the only comedian in your group, Sasuke," Raina - that's what she called herself, at least - proclaimed, looking at Uchiha prodigy. As expected, he didn't respond. "Warlock with human weapons? Where have _you _come from?"

xxxx

It took them no longer than thirty minutes to finally buy (or, rather, take) all the weapons they wanted and steal some of the clothes from the few shops that they've passed by.

"Yatta, we are finally done with shopping," Naruto tiredly let out after they entered the hotel and were welcomed by an extraordinarily nice female hobbit. At first Uzumaki gaped at her but was then pushed through by Kakashi and Sakura - the latter rolled her eyes at him. Her gaze practically shouted 'Don't stare, baka - do you want to get us noticed?'

Now they sat in a room that the landlady was nice enough to give them for night. Unfortunately, it was made for two - a king-sized bed in the middle of the room said it all - so the other two had to figure out where to sleep for the rest of the night. Still, they all had something on their mind at the moment, hence the lack of extra beds wasn't a big problem.

"Don't think that's true, Naruto, seeing as you are about to eat half of what I've brought for us," Sakura remarked, chewing on her peach. While her and Naruto were leisurely sitting on the bed, taking up most of the available space, Sasuke decided to be his usual arrogant and 'above everyone else' self by standing next to the nearby wall and leaning onto it with a plain face expression.

Kakashi didn't have enough energy to fight his students that were currently occupying the bed, so he simple sat cross-legged in front of the bed and took one of the pears that Sakura has brought.

"That ramen was about the worst ramen I have ever tried and trust me when I say that I've tried some nasty one while travelling with Ero-sannin... Oh!" he stole a glance at Sasuke and the corner of his lips pulled up. "Do you wanna hear about my adventures while I was travelling with Jiraya? I bet it was more exciting than your stay with the snake's tongue guy!"

When he didn't receive a response he was hoping for, Naruto huffed and began explaining how _exciting_ it was anyway with Sakura and Kakashi sharing a look of pure tiredness. They both wondered what terrible deeds they've done in their previous lives to get someone as hyper as Naruto.

About an hour into the story, Sakura told others that's she's off to sleep and fell asleep right on the bed, making Uzumaki pause with his story and silently consider if he should be a gentleman and get off the bed - in the end, Sakura _loved _gentlemen. But the floor didn't seem all too pleasing, hence he decided to lay on the bed and even stole a pillow from his teammate, continuing on with the story.

When Kakashi fell asleep as well, it was up to Naruto do call it night as his blonde head less than gracefully felt on the big pillow next to him. Mumbling something along the lines of, "Night, Sasuke" he was soon snoring and occasionally shouting out some random phrases - the guy sure talked in his sleep!

However, sleeping was not an option for the Uchiha prodigy. It wasn't only the fact that all he could see as he closed his eyes was team 7's fight with Kaguya - whatever the heck happened to her, anyway? - but also the sense of dread at the back of his scalp.

As Kakashi noticed only a few hours ago, he sensed something coming. However, he wasn't sure if Kakashi completely understood him; it seemed that his ex-sensei thought of something much bigger and more dangerous than it actually was. No, this _something _that followed them ever since they have left that seemingly never-ending field was actually a _someone. _He didn't want to share this piece of information with others because, as far as he remembered, neither of them were good at keeping their mouths shout and would surely make a fuss out of it.

And there was simply no need in that - he could take care of this little issue himself.

Quietly putting on his purple top and weary grey trousers, at the same time soundlessly putting on boots, Sasuke opened the window that led to the garden and, without looking back, jumped out of the window.

Only he missed out that Kakashi was an ANBU and, though he seemed rather plain and ordinary, the man was rather observant and had insomnia for years, pretending that he didn't.

xxxx

"Are you sure it's this way?"

"Of course I'm sure, dumbass! Do you think I just randomly decided to go in this direction without a single clue?"

"You seem to like doing that, Four-Eyes."

"Oh will you shut your face, for the love of everything that is holly and not you! Seriously, Shark-Face, if we continue in the same tempo, we will never reach _him._"

"Ah, sorry, forgot that _Sasuke-kun _was on the stake."

"No wonder, what with you only caring about yourself and all!"

"Keep it quiet, you don't want to be seen or heard by others."

"What _others_, Juugo?! We are in the middle of nowhere, we don't have chakra, so I have no idea how is Karin pulling out her 'chakra-sensing' shit and there is no water nearby. Correction - there is _nothing _nearby!"

"Then you better calm down or you will get tired much quicker and will require water."

"..."

"..."

"Seriously, man, sometimes _you _are tiring me out than _this bitch right here_. I feel so thirsty I might just drink someone's blood..."

"Don't look in my direction, Suigetsu."

"Don't worry, I bet your blood is poisonous anyway."

"The heck," hit, "did you say?! Wanna repeat?!"

Sigh.

"This will be a looong walk."

_A few hours later_

"... Are we close or..?"

"If we were close I would _tell _you so, you know? Besides, it's getting really dark and we need to take a break somewhere. Juugo, what did the birds tell you?"

"They told me there is a forest to the south-west. It's rather big and we are most likely to find a cave there; otherwise we can always sleep on trees."

"Hah, yeah, like I'm getting up there, only to fall down a few hours later. That's the dream, man."

"The problem is that the forest is about six hours of walking away."

Karin swiftly turned towards her teammate and rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Could have told us that in the beginning! It will take us about the same time to get to the city that Sasuke-kun went to with a bunch of other guys."

Her words were received with a snort from Suigetsu, "That is, _if _we are going in the right direction."

"U-RU-SAIII!"

Juugo only sighed and continued walking, occasionally hitting the few rocks that were on his way and thinking about where they were. Although neither one of his comrades voiced the problem, it was still there, looming over them like an axe was looming over someone, sentenced to death.

No chakra and no idea where they are - definitely not in their world, though. Looking for Sasuke was the only option they had - that would surely clean up the current events, seeing as he was the leader of their team... before trying to kill Karin and-

He didn't let himself finish this idea and only continued pondering over where could they stay for night. Unlike his teammates, he had a high stamina and could probably continue walking for the whole night but without Karin's direction it would be pointless.

Suddenly, he heard Suigetsu shouting something incoherent and Karin wooping; when he turned around and gave the two a questioning look, they only pointed out a small pub that was surrounded by a few tents and signs.

"Why didn't your stupid birds point out that there was a _pub _nearby?" Suigetsu wondered aloud and practically ran towards the small building, Karin not far behind him.

Pause.

"My birds aren't stupid."

The pub looked rather ordinary but it didn't stop Suigetsu from bursting into it with the widest smile he could master. Usually his shark-like teeth scared the shit out of people nearby but this time, it seemed, no one actually cared. Odd.

"Hey, bartender, give me a pint of your best drink!" he announced, slumping on a chair near the bar and inwardly wincing when he saw a gum stuck to the polished wood surface in front of him.

"Coming right up!"

"And what... gasp... do you think you are doing... gasp..." Karin's voice sounded behind his back and for a moment he contemplated whether he should turn around or completely ignore her, like she was a stranger.

In a sense, she was one. Neither of the team Hebi members actually knew anything about each other - the past, the history and the tragedy that led them to this point of their lives - but it also helped because this way they kept themselves detached from each other. Well, remotely.

He felt like grimacing every time he thought about that one occasion where he went against his principles and saved his comrades from Killer B. If he didn't step in, they would all probably be dead or half-dead...

Suigetsu shook his head and finally half-turned towards his red-haired teammate.

"Ordering myself a drink. Oh, and you should definitely run more - you are obviously out of breath and that's only after a few minutes of running."

"And how do you think you will pay for it? Besides, I'm good in running - I'm just tired, idiot."

"Uh-huh," he nodded with that arrogant and 'I-know-it-all' smirk on his face. Karin had to admit that it wasn't that repulsive as it was before; not after they attacked Tobi - or whatever his name was - together and Suigetsu briefly, but admitted that her strength impressed him.

When she looked away, trying to hide the forming smile on her lips, she heard a harsh, "Oi, what are you smirking at?" and her calmness was instantly destroyed.

She sat on the chair beside him and began glaring at him with her piercing ruby eyes. It usually made people around her uncomfortable but her teammates were used to things much weirder and scarier than that, so Suigetsu only gave her a peculiar look and soon accepted the drink from bartender.

"I get it you are pissy because we didn't find him yet but there is no reason to get pissed of with your teammates," he answered with a relaxed sigh and threw a glance at bar's doors, eyeing as Juugo entered the building. "You have to be like him - all calm and nice but store all this hatred and annoyance inside, ready to let it out in any moment."

"Juugo is like a ticking bomb, you never know when he will explode - or, rather, his mark will take over him," Karin noticed coldly; she was never sentimental, but sometimes she wished so much that Juugo will be able to deal with the cursed mark of his and live a relatively happy life. None of them had the same problem - well, Sasuke seemed to have when he got his mark from Orochimaru but the latter taught him how to control it soon after he joined them and Uchiha never suffered again.

Juugo didn't have that luxury.

They continued sitting at the bar for some time, casually chatting and bickering about all things that concerned Suigetsu's sharp teeths and Karin's glasses. As expected, their third teammate decided to stay away from their loud selves and sat at the back which probably gave him a perfect view to everything in the bar.

Their team was a complete mess without Sasuke - that was something neither of them could deny. If he was with them, Suigetsu would probably be busy looking for water, Karin would surely be all around their captain while Juugo was kept in control.

Karin's eyes widened when she realised that without Sasuke around she and Suigetsu won't be able to control his mark.

"Oi, Shark-Face."

"What."

"Aren't you worried about... Juugo's mark? Recent events must have been an emotional wreck for him, so I'm not sure he's all that stable right now. Things might go even worse at night."

"What are you even talking about, cause all I can hear is 'blah-blah-blah Suigetsu is amazing blah-blah'," he answered with the straightest face he could keep but the guy burst out laughing when Karin hit him with a chair that stood next to her. It didn't seem to attract anyone's attention, though. "Nah, I'm joking. He'll be fine."

"How would you know?"

"Well, it's not hard to add one plus one, is it?" After a moment of silence, he sighed to himself and prayed to all the Gods that she was just a tad bit smarter and less witty. "We don't have chakra. It doesn't seem like there is chakra in this place - wherever we are, different world or reality or genjustu, whatever. The point is, there's nothing to worry about."

"The mark is mostly affected by his emotions as there is little to none chakra involved - trust me, I would know," the statement caused Suigetsu to wince and looked at her covered arms with a bunch of mixed emotions that showed on his face. "So there is a chance - a slim, very slim, but still a chance that the mark might work."

Silver-haired shinobi finally put his empty glass on the table and stared into space, thinking over the possibilities. No way in hell were they leaving this place - he doubted that a cold cave was better than sleeping in a tent, no matter how much persuading the owner will need to be placed under. In other words, they will just have to hope for the best.

As he stood up and somewhat shakily followed his teammate - he lost count after his seventh pint - an angry "What about the payment?" made him flinch and tiredly roll his eyes. This jerk... if he had his chakra, he would gladly slice this man into sushi and leave it at that, but, as it was, he didn't have his sword on his and neither did he have enough energy or chakra to keep up a good fight if others were to interfere.

"It's alright, I'll pay for him."

Wow, a miracle - someone was finally nice enough to pay for him! Because Suigetsu was used to drinking since he was fourteen, he knew of how guys in bars acted like if they paid for your drink; well, they were either gay and were flirting with you or they did it so you will owe something to them later on.

Or they were simply nice but Suigetsu quickly rejected that idea.

"Thanks, mate, but unfortunately I'm not gay and I'm completely bro-"

Words didn't leave his mouth when his purple eyes met with calm, black ones.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," he chuckled nervously, looking at the familiar face and not liking the idea of _him_, of all people, spying on them even a little bit pleasing.

Well, the question of _why? _went right after the question of _how?_

Because no way in hell was Uchiha Itachi himself sitting in front of him and casually drinking his beer, his eyes clearly stating that he had no idea as to who Suigetsu was.

* * *

**A/N: Gotta say when I began writing this chapter, I didn't actually expect that I will make Sasuke nearly kill someone lol**

**/sigh/ I guess that's what you get when writing for a series that are as crazy as Naruto.**

**As to why Itachi is in this story, even though he is dead... you will find out later, don't worry.**

**Either way, I hope it went alright (?) and I would love to receive some feedback. **


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

* * *

**My laptop was taken away and then I was really lazy... but yesterday I watched the whole of Free! and began watching Eternal Summer! (i finally know how all of them sound like lol) It was a BIG inspiration, ya know ;D Regarding the last chapter of manga, what can I say, I feel like manga is coming to its end and 690 showed us just how close we are. I'm kinda sad now... Ah well, enough with me talking, here's chapter 4!**

**P. S. Hope y'll already checked out new character designs for Ten Ten, Gaara, and a few other characters for "Naruto The Movie: The Last" ;)**

* * *

"Shit, shit, shit!"

Naruto stirred in his sleep and half-opened one of his eyes - the one that wasn't currently burried into pillow. At the image of Sakura sprinting around the room and Kakashi sitting on the edge of the bed, he huffed and closed his eye once again, wishing to return to sleep.

Not two minutes later he was harshly kicked and fell to the floor with a loud thud. Uzumaki counted to ten, waiting for an apology or its equivalent but when none of these things were said to him, he sighed and slowly picked himself up.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time Sakura kicked him off the bed, hence he was getting kinda used to it but it never ceased the pain in his backside.

"Sakura-chan, what did I do again?" he murmured and rubbed his eyes, looking outside. "If it's about me stealing all the covers, than forget about it - the night was cold and-"

"Sasuke is gone."

A mixture of oh shit and other examples of foul language ran through his head as he finally woke up and looked at his female, expecting further explanations.

"Are you sure he didn't go out to find something to eat, seeing as we barely have anything left, or just decided to explore the city before we woke up? I mean, we haven't been teammates for ages and a lot of our habits have changed..."

When she shook her head, he silently cursed and looked at his ex-sensei, "What do you think about it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I asked the landlady and she was rather certain when saying that no one left this morning, so he either left at night or jumped out of the window," Hatake leisurely informed him, standing up and retreating his cloak from the closet. "Seeing as we don't have chakra or any other way of locating him, we will have to continue on our own. No questions."

Naruto attempted to argue with him, but Kakashi didn't bulge. A single glance to his left assured him that Sakura wasn't happy with the decision either, but it was better than staying here or just travel around, looking for Sasuke.

"He took all of his stuff with him," she said upon nodding to the half-empty closet. "Clothes, bow with arrows and swords. I haven't gotten a slightest clue as to why would he suddenly disappear - did he see someone or did he get in trouble but either way we have to figure out where are we and how to get out of this... illusion or parallel reality, whatever it is."

And so they packed their things and left the building without looking back because if the remaining members of team 7 were good in something, it was going on without Sasuke.

Thanks to Sasuke, the streets were more or less safe now - but then again, only Sakura knew of whys and hows. It was quite early when they stroded down the half-empty street, looking for a shop that was already opened but there were none - it seemed that the majority preferred to lay around until nine or ten in the morning. Sure, it did upset Naruto when he realised that he won't be having ramen in the near future - or anything else besides fruits and vegetables, for that matter - but there wasn't any alternative to it. And fruits were better than nothing.

He hummed a song under his breath and kept glancing at Sakura's weapon that was securely placed on her back. The big-ass axe looked much more intimidating than either of her teammates' weapons. Surely, it was heavy and what with Sakura not being able to use her superior chakra anymore... he couldn't help but wonder how on earth was she carrying this kind of 'monster' on her back!

"Anoo, Sakura-chan?"

"Mmm?"

"Can you lend me your axe for a moment?"

Pinkette simply shrugged and handed her weapon over to Uzumaki. This caused the latter one to fall to the ground with a loud thud and his team looked at him in mere confusion.

"How the heck... are you carrying this thing around?!"

"It's because I eat things beside ramen and do more than lay around in bed for hours, constantly relying on on kitsune's power," she said, arching her eyebrow and picking up her axe. "Just accept that when it comes to physical power, I am better than you and if we get into a fist fight with someone, I can protect you."

Naruto chuckled under his breath and accepted her hand, standing up from the ground.

"I hope so. Wouldn't want getting all bruised and stuff."

Haruno stiffened her laugh while Kakashi gave him a good-natured smile.

"Hmm, afraid that _someone _will make fun of you for losing in a fist fight?"

They all knew who Kakashi was referring to, alright.

"I don't care what _teme _will think of me, Kakashi-sensei. We aren't twelve anymore."

A single glance at his seventeen-years-old students made him shake his head and point his stick in Naruto's direction. "You better act like it, _Naruto._"

In a blink of an eye an invisible force pushed the latter on to the ground; no, that was an understatement - it made him fly a few meters away, tumbling in the air and finally landing on the ground with his face right in the nearby pile of mud.

An eerie silence made Kakashi look down in his stick in wonderment - it was this _thing's _fault, right? He checked where his female stood - quite far enough, she wouldn't be able to punch Naruto from that distance. Besides, he would see if she did so, even though his Sharingan didn't work in this... world? dimension? Whatever.

He then turned the stick in his hands a few times, checking if it had a secret within or something, but it didn't look suspicious at all. Just a stick, made of wood that was swirled at the top. Maybe, it was one of those magical objects Raina talked about? Or was it something about him being a... what did she call him... Wizard? No, warlock, although he couldn't see what was the difference in the slightest.

"Whoa, sugee, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura whispered in admiration, studying the stick in his hands. "How did you do it?"

They could hear Naruto mumbling something under his breath but could only understand what he was saying when he separated his face from all the mud. "Sakura-chan, don't forget that just now some weird force made me fly and fall on the ground. With my face."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed and ran towards him. Her worried face was instantly change to that of a sly fox and Naruto nervously gulped upon seeing her dangerous expression. "Do you want me to wipe your face with my sleeves, oh future Hokage?"

"N-nah, it's fine," he assured and waved his hand in the air, his eyebrows twitching. The day has just began and Sasuke already went missing, Kakashi was doing some weird... stuff without using chakra and not a minute ago he was lying face down in mud. Eh, talk about _good morning._

When the both of them turned to Kakashi, Hatake was waving his stick in the air like one would attack someone with their sword, all the while chanting something under his breath. Naruto and Sakura could swear they heard 'money' and 'women' somewhere in there.

The both of them deadpanned.

"Ka-ka-shi-sen-seiii," Sakura drawled out - of course, how could she forget about her sensei's weirdness? "It's not some kind of magic wand that does whatever you want it to do."

"How would you know, _Sakura-chan_?" he asked and attacked invisible enemy with the piece of wood. His students could already feel a few people on the street watching them with open suspicion. "Maybe it does and I can wish for whatever I want!"

The man stopped for a second, looking into skies with victorious look on his face. "In fact, I know what I want! And it's something that will benefit all of us!"

Sakura arched her eyebrow and Naruto hummed, scratching his chin. "What is it, Kakashi-sensei? A map? Something that will enable us search for Sasuke?"

"No, but it will enable us to find him in the shortest period of time and will keep our team stable and free of arguing!"

Now both of his students looked at him in pure expectation. What the heck was their old man talking about? Or was he completely losing his marbles already?

"I present you... Icha-Icha-Paradise, the limited edition!" Kakashi shouted and pointed his stick at the ground.

Nothing happened. Not even a swirl of light or a light breeze. Just... silence.

But not for long, as Naruto took the stick from him and started waving it in different directions, asking for the oddest things, all the while acting as if he knew how the stick worked; Sakura only stood nearby and counted until ten before taking the 'weapon' from her teammate's hands and telling them to move already.

Both males knew arguing with her was alike arguing with Tsunade and that was always fruitless.

It took them about twenty minutes to finally find a map and a man in his thirties - or, rather, a gnome - that was willing to pinpoint their whereabouts and tell them about the world outside this little city.

When said their goodbyes to the man, Naruto literally stole the map from Kakashi and began turning it in his hands, looking for something only he knew. Neither of his teammates minded - the sun was already rising and, at least to Sakura, the air was reaching its boiling point; Kakashi, on the other hand, appeared completely calm and even joked that he wouldn't mind another sweater underneath his baggy cloak. His students were ready to strangle him.

"Oh, look at that!" Uzumaki shouted, pointing at mountains that, if map's scale was right, were located good hundred kilometres away from them. "It says here that ice dragons live there! Have you ever wanted to see dragons?"

"Naruto, we don't have time-"

"Actually, we have all the time, Kakashi-sensei - stop lazing around," Sakura chided him but then turned to Naruto. "However, we still have to get to some big town and figure out what exactly happened to us. Don't you want to know, too?"

"Yeah, but... Dragons!"

Dang him! Of course she wanted to see dragons! Among all the stories she was told when Sakura was a child, pinkette remembered dragons the best. In those sweet fairy tales dragons were murdered by beautiful princes on white horses. She laughed in her mind, remembering her young self drawing hundreds of sketches where she was the princess that had to be saved and Sasuke ran through the field and attacked big, scary dragon in order to have princess' heart. God, even thinking about it was embarrassing.

Naruto's thoughts, however, were far off from any romance or fairy tales; he just couldn't stop thinking about how cool he would look like on a dragon! Sure, ice dragons were nice, but he would prefer an air dragon, much like his chakra's nature. Gee, he could almost see himself riding an amazing dragon with grey squama (it was grey in his imagination) that kept reflecting whatever light shone on him. And whenever a big army tried to attack them from the ground while they were flying high in the skies, his dragon would create whirlwind and, mixing with his Rasen (_if _he was able to use it)-

"Naruto, _no. _We aren't travelling to some cold mountains just so you can see a dragon," came Kakashi's sudden retort but Uzumaki didn't let his spirit fall. Oh no, he wasn't going to act reckless but he wasn't going to just follow the plan when there were _dragons _to see, either! "Besides, hundred kilometres... We will get so tired before reaching it that you won't be willing to see any dragons anymore."

It was by no means a long distance for them when they were full of chakra but now, in their tired and lost state, without a single drop of chakra flowing through their bodies... It was upsetting, to say the least. And yet Naruto didn't bulge and kept thinking how _cool _he would look on one of those.

"What if after we find out where we are and, well, the rest, we all go to these mountains? And look for dragons?" Naruto proposed excitedly.

Kakashi sighed.

This drama queen.

xxxx

He could feel that he was getting closer to his objective. Albeit being drained of chakra, there was no denying that he was getting closed and closer...

It was weird that _she _decided to head in completely different direction that she was originally going in - which was travelling towards him. He supposed that the rest of team was with her and was simply relying on her senses which, admittedly, were better than his.

He stopped for a moment, leaning forward and squinting at the broken branch. He was no hunter but being Orochimaru's apprentice taught him a thing or two about following or finding someone on woods. He knew where south and north were, he could find the closest source of water without a problem and-

Yes, he could definitely see a silver hair on the broken branch and Sasuke was hundred percent sure that it was Suigetsu's - only he was reckless enough as to forget to cover his tracks. No wonder, though - the guy didn't spend _that _much time in woods. If things he heard about swordsman were right, Suigetsu was anything but quiet and didn't seek hideouts - that is, before encountering Orochimaru. Now he was standing out of place much less but still left things behind nevertheless.

Sasuke inhaled the air. It smelled of smoke and something else. It definitely wasn't food or wood, so someone was obviously burning one of their belongings.

Was it Hebi? And if it was, he smirked to himself, they were smart for staying in woods, although if they travelled towards him, things would be much easier.

He tried walking past the trees as silently as he could for the majority of his trip but Sasuke was getting restless and he was pretty sure his team was anywhere but close to his current location at the moment. It was no wonder, though - he didn't get any sleep since waking up in the middle of nowhere nearly 24 hours before and he didn't eat anything for the last 10 hours, although he wasn't complaining.

Resting against the nearby tree for a moment, he let his mind calm down and stop racing at hundred miles per hour.

He had to think.

xxxx

"Why are we hiding him from Sasuke?" Suigetsu whispered harshly to his female teammate; she threw a dirty glance at him and only continued walking. When he addressed the same question towards Juugo, the redhead asked Itachi to walk a few meters behind them and came closer to the swordsman.

"Neither of us have a single idea of _what _this is because Itachi is dead. If Sasuke finds out about Itachi... I don't think we will get out of here any time soon. He will want to investigate and think of his own interests, rather than his team."

Silver-haired man nodded in understanding, though he wasn't that certain what they were doing was right; and, to be honest, they were _hiding _from Sasuke. Hiding from someone that almost killed Karin in a spurt and, well, went all crazy after finding out the truth about his older brother.

Yeah, the guy definitely couldn't be trusted on this issue, even if he was the leader of their team.

"Sooo we are hiding him. I get that. But how long can we hide him? Isn't it easier to just kill him?"

Juugo threw a cautious glance at Itachi that walked behind them and was simply enjoying the beautiful nature around them. This Itachi - his imitation or whatnot - was different from the image that was created by Juugo in his head. _This _Itachi wasn't as unemotional; he seemed to be more _compliant_ than an S-ranked apostate and a complete opposite from Sasuke, apart from his looks.

"So far he listens to everything we tell him to do and his questioning his limited, even though we are some complete strangers to him. He might be of some use for us."

Suigetsu only sighed in resignation and he placed his hands behind his head, looking up at the skies. "Welp, as long as he doesn't cause us too much trouble and Sasuke isn't after us with some murderous intentions... I'm alright."

About two minutes later, however, his questioning began again. He leaned over to his taller teammate and began whispering in hie ear, completely ignoring Karin that looked rather pissed with their secrecy.

"But haven't you _wondered _who this man is? Maybe this reality has brought everyone we wanted so much to see again back to life? Which means that Kimima-"

"Finish that sentence and I will throw you in that tree," Juugo calmly said matter-of-factly which made Suigetsu flinch and now walk fifty centimetres away from him. The action didn't make the red-head react in any way as he simply continued walking, looking in front of them. Sure, he was 'calm like stone' but when it came down to Kimimaro...

"O-okay, big guy, I will leave you and your little insanities alone," Suigetsu said with his hands up in apologetic manner. "But you honestly _haven't wondered?_ If so, I wouldn't mind staying here for some time, you know!"

"Without chakra?"

"Who needs chakra when when there are swords and thousands of people whose throats you can slice without a care in the world?" he said with a shrug which caused the corner of Juugo's mouth to lift up in a half-smile. Indeed, from what they found out yesterday, Suigetsu could quite literally go for a killing spree and no one would give a fuck.

Well, _almost _no one.

* * *

**A/N: Um, yah, I suddenly remembered that I made this fic as pure crack sooo I imagine Kakashi being like Rei, in a sense that he is weird and (at least, regarding porn) can shout out the weirdest things. Gotta keep up the 'Humour' category! Oh, and sorry for the short chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**Last 2 weeks was extreeemely busy (preparation for school & application and first week of school) / Last year of school, applying for unis and barely any social life due to sleepless nights with powerpoints and books on my table... ahh my life is pure joy**

**Thank you for your continuous support (especially with Kakashi and his stick lol) and here we go with chapter 5 :)**

**Note: I am extremely unoriginal with titles and names. You will understand what I mean at the end of the chapter, if not before.**

* * *

The morning turned out to be rather quiet. Apart from some complains from Naruto ("It's way too hot, can't we stay somewhere for a while?") and Sakura constantly sighing about how unfortunate she was due to her being stuck with 'this baka', that is.

Kakashi silently concluded that not much changed from the time their squad consisted of four people with the forth one being Sasuke. Hatake had a few ideas as to why Uchiha's prodigy left without saying a word, but he was going to keep it to himself, otherwise the rest of the team will act reckless and will try to track Sasuke down without listening to their squad leader.

Although, when he thought about it, he was no longer their squad leader. Naruto was now 17 with Sakura not far behind - that had to count for something, right?

Either way, with a map in their hands they were now able to go wherever they wanted. Going to the main city was the only sensible thing to do at this point but it meant travelling hundreds kilometres; Naruto winked at him, suggesting that his idea about getting a dragon wasn't all bad, but Kakashi only turned away and completely blanked him. It was pointless telling Uzumaki about the fact that dragons might be dangerous and actually eat people - that is, if they didn't barbecue them before eating. Hatake winced at the mere thought of being burned by a dragon. If only he was able to use his Katon...

And, because they weren't ready to travel thousands of kilometres to reach a city which supposedly meant a resolve to their questions, team 7 - not complete, but team 7 nevertheless - decided to head over to nearest town which apparently held quite a number of magicians, at least that's what they were told. It was no more than seven-eight hours away - all they had to do was cross a swamp (or, rather, what remained of the once beautiful lake). Neither bothered to ask what happened to it or why did the guy that explained everything to them flinch while telling the group of this swamp.

They already walked for whole two hours without stopping which otherwise would be a normal occurrence but without chakra and no resemblance of shadow, they were getting tired very quickly - that is, Naruto and Sakura were, while Kakashi remained as cool as ever.

"So, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura drawled after the five minute silence between teammates. "What do you think we will find in Mbadala*?"

He shrugged and thought about the answer for a second. "I hope we will find someone that we know."

Naruto threw a glance at his ex-sensei (who he still called sensei), "What do you mean? Did you see someone we might know in the city?"

"No, but I have my suspicions that we weren't the only ones that were thrown into this world," came older man's reply. In all truthfulness, it was Sasuke's constant alertness that made him alert as well, which in turn made gears in his head run like crazy. Were there others?

Some insane part of him that was probably always there, but he only discovered it recently, told him that they didn't defeat Kaguya and that this was just her genjutsu. Maybe that explosion made them lose consciousness and she had just enough time to do the same thing to them as was done to the rest of the world?

But if it was illusion, it either had to be a separate one or the sort that connected everyone's minds together. Separate was a simple now, though how the heck did illusion replicate his students so accurately? Were all of them just an illusion but at the same time had no idea that they were just made up? Or were Naruto and Sakura real - in his mind, at least - and they were all mentally connected?

He still couldn't deny the possibility of either of these things happening, so instead of continuing to ponder over it, he let his mind rest and listen to his students' conversation; if he indeed continued, something was gonna give - probably, his sanity.

"Orange or purple?" Naruto asked his teammate, scratching his chin.

"Hmm," Sakura hummed for a few seconds. "Definitely not orange - I know that it's your favourite colour but it would just look weird."

"Then what? You said no to all of my previous ideas," he whined and looked at his friend as if she was to blame for everything bad that happened in the world.

"I'd say they are... red."

Uzumaki snorted, "Yeah, now look at who's picking her favourite colour."

"I'm not!" Sakura whispered, completely indignant. She then bit her lip and looked to the left; Naruto didn't miss the blush forming on her face. "I really think they have red tails."

"Who has red tails?" Kakashi finally asked, blinking a few times - how long did he doze off for?

His ex-students looked at him like Hatake just proclaimed that he is punctual and hard-working. Welp.

"Mermaids!" the both of them shouted, pointing at a certain point on the map that they took a hold of earlier that day.

"Look, it would take us a lot of time to leave area - don't even get me started on how long it will take us to leave Enobaria*** - but to the south-west there is a small country called Shui**," Sakura explained to him patiently while Naruto was fervently nodding.

"Okay... and?"

"It says here that it's a water-based country, so basically most of it isn't exactly land - it's water!" Uzumaki exclaimed giddily. "Ah, I remember Gamakichi constantly complaining that there isn't a place like that in human's world - specifically designed to accommodate water-dependent species. Maybe they have swings underwater? Oh, or they have some awesome slides?"

"You are getting too distracted - we aren't leaving Enobaria to just wander off, looking for a pond with a few females that have fishtails," Kakashi waved at him in resignation. Seriously, why was Sakura, of all people, listening to his excited blabbering and supporting his wish to see mermaids? Because if pale pink on her cheeks and pouting lips told him something, it was that yes, she felt like a five-years-old but she still wanted to see mermaids.

Naruto huffed, "I was just sayin', you know. Nothing to get annoyed with."

Albeit the next two or so minutes being spent in silence, Kakashi couldn't help but notice green fog a few meters away from them; it happened to be in the direction they were heading it and Hatake didn't like how it looked one bit.

"Matte," he told his team in his slow and calm, yet commanding voice and they instantly stopped. When the both of them looked at him in surprise, he could only point at the green fog and not feel any need in further explanation.

When he turned on his hills and headed towards it, they were strictly behind him, not two steps behind. It was kind of stupid how this little thing made him feel all giddy; they were grown-ups and they listened to his orders without questioning, like they did earlier with Sasuke, acting all professional and ninja-like.

He could almost say that they were as disciplined as him.

Almost; he still had an issue with their somewhat immature talks.

As they walked closer, neither could avert their gaze from the muddy liquid that produced this fog. Oh, so this was what that man was talking about - they finally reached it.

"Ugh. Swamp," Sakura muttered, stopping dead on her tracks and looking further away. "It seems really long."

"And deep," Naruto said upon squatting down in front of the suspiciously smelling swamp and squinting his eyes when he tried to see it's bottom; all he could see, however, was a mere resemblance of his reflection and something green and dark further down - probably algae, but he wasn't hundred percent sure. "Oi, Sakura-chan, do you wanna check how deep it is?"

"Ladies first," she said and rolled her eyes, clutching her fist in front of his face. The act made him nervously gulp and instantly drop his idea.

"It was just a suggestion!"

"Sure it was."

A beat.

"Wait, does it mean you refer to yourself as a man, rather than a lady?"

Sigh. "Shut up already. All I can hear you doing is spluttering some random words and hoping they make sense. But they don't and we aren't on the battlefield where randomly shouting 'dattebayo!' will do the trick."

Kakashi snickered behind his mask while Naruto tried to comprehend what was just said to him and when he did, he cried out in anger, realising that he was just told.

Ah, team 7 bickering. They just couldn't remain looking like adults for a long time.

Kakashi himself looked over Naruto's shoulder but didn't see anything he didn't expect to see before. Filthy water, eye-tearing smell (okay, that was sort of unusual for a swamp - they never smelled that badly) and some algae.

"Do we have to cross it?" Uzumaki mused to himself, although they all knew the answer to this question.

"Well, unless you suddenly grew a pair of wings on your back and are willing and able to carry us..." came Sakura's only response but he could clearly see that she was just joking.

"But there are no... stones or whatever that we can jump on," he whined but than sighed to himself. "I guess we will have to do it the old-fashioned way."

Naruto began to swiftly remove a massive shield from his back, as well as the rest of small knives and any weapon whatsoever. "We will have to leave them here, right? Cos if it's deeper than human, extra weight will make us gravitate towards the bottom."

Kakashi thought 'not bad' at Naruto's discretion; although the boy pretended to be dumb at times, he never ceised to amaze Minato's student; a flashback of their fight with Kaguya popped in his mind: Naruto doing something brilliant and him admitting that the boy was always strangely (rather, weirdly) genius.

"Heee? So it seems," Sakura said and chewed on her lip, looking back at her axe. The perspective of losing it wasn't something she was particularly keen of. If it wasn't for Sasuke, they wouldn't have found free weapon, so how would they be able to find a replacement in Mbadala? "Maybe we can go around this swamp? I mean, it can't be that big."

"If we go around, we will have to go through those rusty bushes and I am more than certain that they are poisonous," Kakashi said and nodded to the side. Indeed, there were too many of those to count (neither of them could see where it ended) and they just about reached average human's stomach.

Naruto looked at Sakura, expecting her to answer it or come up with some ideas, but the girl was silent. Neither was too keen as to leaving their stuff behind and trying to find new one in future. Although Uzumaki didn't agree with Kakashi, his teammate seemed to have given up. "Alright, I guess we will have to leave all of this behind."

He tsked to himself, but didn't argue - it was pointless either way. Besides, they had some other stuff to worry about - how will they reach the end of it, as they couldn't see it from their current point of view. Would they have enough energy to reach it? There was nothing made of wood nearby, strangely (there were dozens of bushes, for Kami's sake, why weren't there any branches or what not?), so they would have to swim the whole way without any sort of support.

"We better get in, then," Naruto announced as he stripped down to his shirt and trousers, considering whether he should leave his leather boots behind as well. Pouting a bit, he put it to the pile of all the things he was forced to leave behind and turned towards the swamp once more.

A shiver ran down his body as he finally accessed what kind of _trouble _they were getting themselves into. Swamp. With frogs and other living things. The surface was mostly green and Naruto couldn't help but flinch at the disgusting smell that made his insides twist.

'Okay, think positive. One of your closest friends is a frog, you've been thrown in mud and dirt more times that you could remember - and people talked of you like you were one, too. There is nothing dangerous or scary about it! Sure, it doesn't smell like flowers or ramen, but if I breathe through my nose, I-'

"Are you getting in or not?"

When Naruto looked down, he saw Sakura and Kakashi already swimming in the swamp, only their heads visible. Oh, and he couldn't ignore their pissed off faces, either.

"Hai, hai," he murmured cheerfully, mentally readying himself and touching water's surface with his toe.

He instantly jerked away and screeched at a very high-pitch voice.

"THE HECK?!"

"Naruto, stop being an idiot and get in."

"This is _freezing, _we will die in here if we aren't wearing something warm enough. You know what, I can go back to the city - it's not that far away, ya know! - and get us some warm coats and-"

"Are you backing away?"

Silence.

"Then, imagine Sasuke-kun is here. Do you think he would resist from teasing you about how _scared _you are of this little swamp?"

That did the trick.

"Sakura-chan, I _told _you I wasn't scared, it's just too damn cold. Actually, watch me!"

Both knew what was coming, but they still weren't ready for Naruto shouting "Here I comeeeee!" and cannonballing in. That caused a large wave of questionably smelly liquid to wash over his poor team. However, whereas Kakashi remained unfazed when the mini-tsunami was gone, Sakura... she was gone. A minute later and her head still didn't pop up, complaining about how loud he was and that, if she were to choose, she would send him off to a deserted island and die because of the lack of water.

"_Haaaah? _Sakura-chan?" Naruto called out, blood in his veins getting cold at the mere thought that something happened. _Oh, shit, I never saw her swim since that last mission we had with Sasuke. Maybe she doesn't know how to anymore? Shit, shit, shit._

"Sakura," Kakashi called out calmly - he obviously remained certain that everything was alright and his ex-student wasn't drowning or something. Sometimes - okay, most of the time - it pissed Naruto off, this ever-lasting coldness, but he knew that right now it wasn't time for panic. Besides, it seemed that Hatake placed enough trust in both of them as to them not suddenly drowning in a calm swamp. Maybe he was right, but Uzumaki's nerves were getting the best of him.

He began diving in and looking for something - anything - that looked remotely pink; it was pointless, though - even in clean water one's vision instantly became blurry, so there was really no surprise that all Naruto could see was a mass of green and black. Algae and swamp's bottom that seemed so far away. Where the heck did her body go?

He swam up to the surface and gasped for air, "I don't see her anywhere!"

"Keep looking, I will dive in as well," Kakashi reassured him.

"Oka-"

Something took a good grip of his leg and swiftly tugged him down, making boy's eyes widen. What in the living hell could-

A few moment under water - and _something _let go of his leg, allowing him to swim up and quickly look around, checking for danger.

Oh, but there wasn't any danger to begin with - he realised that the moment his eyes met Sakura's green orbs. _Mischievous _orbs, to be exact, that practically laughed at him.

A silent _payback is a bitch, isn't it _didn't go unnoticed by him.

"Sakura-chan, I was scared that you actually drowned!"

"Baka, I can swim," Sakura sighed and shook her head in a dog-like manner to prevent her hair from being so wet. "Don't instantly panic - if you do, your ninja senses will worsen and you will be unable to locate your enemy. Doesn't it remind you of someone?"

Yep, it pretty much reminded him of his twelve-years-old scared self that has just finished the Academy and had his first mission outside Konoha. He could picture his scared self and his brave team at his side all too well. He was a complete nuisance at that time, to be perfectly honest, so being compared to _that... _

"Mmhmm, it reminds me of that time me and Kiba messed with your shampoo back in Academy and on the next day you came to school with blue hair."

_"NARUTOOO!"_

"Ittai, Sakura-chan, don't hit me so much!"

"Now, now, stop bickering like a married couple and start swimming."

"WE AREN'T BICKERING LIKE A MARRIED COUPLE!"

"Well, Sakura-chan, we might be bickering like an _old _married couple."

"Ah, good one, Naruto."

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei, learned from the best."

"DROWN, BOTH OF YOU!"

"Sakura, that's no way to treat your favourite teacher."

"Who _said_ you were my favourite teacher?!"

"Well at least _I'm _your favourite teammate!"

"Says who? I actually like _Sai_ more than you two."

"Sai?! Sakura-chan, you could've said you like Yamato-san more than you like us and I would've believed you."

"Mmhmm, can't agree more."

"UHH!"

Soon Naruto realised that, albeit his continuous swimming practices with Gamabunta whenever the two got a break from practicing, he neglected one thing: speed. And it became extremely apparent when his team began swimming much quicker than him, leaving him far behind. What with Kakashi's butterfly and Sakura's freestyle, his speed was nowhere near theirs.

"Oi, guys, wait!" he shouted out, which made them slow down but didn't completely stop them.

"Told you to learn how to swim properly, baka," Sakura sighed and looked at Hatake. "At a speed like this we won't get anywhere."

She could hear her blonde teammate huffing behind her, but it didn't stop her from wondering how long will they actually last for. And how deep was this swamp anyway? She inhaled deeply and dived, looking for its bottom. However... it just didn't seem to end. She kept swimming and swimming and swimming but she didn't feel like she was reaching it any time soon.

It was a few seconds later that she could feel her lungs quite literally burning and asking for air, so she had to quickly swim up, gasping and chocking. "Gee, this swamp isn't your ordinary little puddle."

"So it seems," Kakashi noted with resentment and continued swimming. Naruto turned out to be right, as it seemed: the water was rather cold and, albeit hot weather, they were - at least, he was - freezing their _ninja assets _off. They had to swim quicker - it would prevent them from getting completely cold and would probably keep their body temperature at check. Now all he had to do was make Naruto hurry up and start swimming _properly._

"Look at that!"

"Oh Kami, don't tell me it's an... _alligator_!"

But when a dark-green object refused to come up to the surface, Naruto nervously gulped and looked over to his team. "I don't think it's an alligator, Sakura-chan."

"Should we check, then?"

"Yeah but who will be the one checking? Cos I'm not that good with alligators..."

"I bet you haven't met a single one in your life, Naruto."

Pause. "Well, yep, but-"

"No buts. Go do it."

Feeling Sakura's scary 'do it or I will drown you do it do it' aura and Kakashi's 'do as she tells you and you might escape broken bones' gaze, poor Uzumaki sighed, reflected on his life up to this point and even let out a mental tear at the prospect of dying a few days later after his seventeenth birthday. 'I live a good life. Konohamaru, I hope you don't destroy the village while being Hokage.'

A few wide stroked and he finally neared the object, not daring to touch it yet and simply observing. Truth to be told, it didn't look half as bad - just a large green object, having no relation to alligators or crocodiles in general whatsoever. Maybe it was just algae? Or a piece of clothing?

_Yeah, someone lost their clothing while swimming. What idiot would do that?_

Naruto gulped because he knew at least _one _person who would do that. Himself.

Taking a deep breath, he stretched his arm in order to touch it (that is, without getting too close). He could see his fingers trembling, but not because he was about to touch something completely foreign - it's his team burning holes through his head with the intensity of their gazes.

Finally, tips of his fingers touched swamp's surface and dived in, reaching out to touch the unknown. A second, a deep breath and a blink was all it too for object to move.

And it took less than a second for Naruto's eyes to widen and for him to back away when said object turned around and happened to be a lifeless body.

"Holy Mother of F-"

"What the heck!"

Uzumaki instantly backed out, trying to wash the hand that touched it in a dirty water but failing to do so. He could still feel soaked cotton t-shirt and the thought that it covered someone's cold dead body made him mentally gag.

"I have never touched a dead body," he admitted to his teammates over his shoulder as he kept staring at the body. A teenage boy, no older than fifteen; plain looks, unnaturally white skin. What in the world happened to him?

"Luckily for you, I've touched those quite a lot," Kakashi spoke up as he swam towards the body, his eyes remaining calm and calculating. As he observed it for cuts or anything that would've caused his death, he was left completely clueless. The boy looked absolutely fine; why would he die at such a young age? "Sakura, mind checking him?"

"Sure."

A few moments later, during which Naruto tried his hardest not to turn away and kept looking at the cool body in front of his very eyes, Sakura finally let go of the pale arm that she was holding and turned towards them, her face worried.

"He doesn't have any bumps or bruises, so he wasn't hit or mercilessly attacked. His lungs barely contain any liquid, so he underwent dry drowning, which doesn't really tell us anything."

"What's dry drowning?"

"Umm in simple words, it's when one's lungs can't inhale oxygen due to a variety of reasons. This could've happened because he had a health condition, but it might've also being due to someone physically attacking him, thus preventing his organism from providing itself with oxygen." Sakura patiently explained as she swam backwards in order to observe the body. "Although if it was due to a medical condition, he would know better than go swimming in a swamp without someone."

"You suspect someone attacked him?" Kakashi asked in a calm voice, looking around and observing whether there were some more bodies they weren't aware of. But no, this boy was the only one, fortunately or unfortunately.

"Hai, but I don't see any bruises on his throat, so it's hard to say. I would have to do a full body inspection in order to say for certain but we can't just take him with us and swim back."

"Mmm."

"So what do we do?" Naruto let out with a sigh, beginning to swim as he felt his skin trembling at how cold it was. His only response was Sakura looking over at their ex-sensei and him slightly nodding.

"We will have to move on. Leave him be."

Naruto sulked but he couldn't argue, neither could he feel a great need to do so. The boy didn't seem to have died that long ago, but his body was already starting to rot in some placed - Uzumaki supposed they couldn't smell him before because of the overall unpleasant smell in this swamp.

"Are you going to leave me behind?"

The three quickly turned around and held their breath. The lifeless body of a young boy was slowly moving - he was adjusting and trying to imitate their swimming techniques.

And it wasn't the fact that he was suddenly moving that scared them. It was his white, white eyes. Where ordinary humans had orbs, he had... nothing.

'Oh, is he simply one of the creatures that lives here?' Sakura thought to herself. 'Maybe he doesn't have heartbeat at all? Then, was he sleeping?'

"Y-you startled us," Naruto confessed nervously, trying to smile and failing miserable. No matter what his team thought, he knew what he saw. This guy was a living dead... or something.

"Hmm, I suppose. What's your name?"

Neither answered and it made the fifteen-years-old quietly chuckle to himself. Kakashi noted how hoarse he sounded, like he didn't laugh in years and was finally presented with an opportunity.

"Okay, I'll tell you my name first. I'm Hans," the boy said, slowly but surely approaching them. "Don't be scared, I won't eat you," he joked but his companions weren't too convinced.

"H-hai, I'm Sakura," pinkette finally said, breaking the silence and tilting her head to the right. "This is Kakashi-sensei and-"

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

"I see," Hans let out with a hum and looked at them expectantly. "Which country are you from?"

This didn't feel like a friendly chatting anymore and was more like interrogation, if anything. However, as they exchanged glances, team 7's members decided to just go along and not cause any conflicts - they would have no advantage here, in the water, without any sort of weapons.

"Ah, Enobaria," Kakashi finally replied, putting on his ordinary sheepish grin and scratching the back of his head in a semi-lazy movement. "You see, me and my foster children are travelling around because our house was burned down and we have nowhere else to go."

'Smooth,' thought both Naruto and Sakura. What with his laid-back attitude and rustic appearance, no one would suspect him as a dangerous person. Pretty much the opposite of their own world, where every fifth person knew who Kakashi of the Sharingan was.

"Enobaria, you say..." Hans repeated to himself and his face instantly became less gentle and friendly. "Take them."

The three of them suddenly felt like their legs were entangled with something - something that was far more solid than fishing line - and they were instantly tugged down.

"Matte!" Naruto cried out and had less than a second to take a deep breath before he was swiftly pulled down, into the world of green and black and the unknown.

He was furiously turning around, looking for his team and stretching his arms as much as he could, but it was pointless - there was nothing around him but dirty water... and _someone _that pulled him down.

Uzumaki let his gaze drop to where swamp's bottom was supposed to be - it was hard coordinating when his inner sense of up and down were completely messed up. There, further away that he could see, were someone's hands that were holding onto his legs. They didn't look like human's hands, either - although they did share some resemblance, these hands seemed much bigger and- were those claws that clung to his legs?! He couldn't say for certain, thanks to his blurry vision.

However, he could soon hear a soft voice that reached his ears like a smooth wave.

_"Enobarians should know better than visit our swamps. We already warned them that we will kill anyone that comes here."_

"Why?" Naruto let out when he could no longer hold his breath and his whole body was screaming to get rid of carbon dioxide and replenish itself with oxygen. The fact that he was moving so much did little to help his situation, which he realised a moment later - the move he moved, the more his body was using up the scarce amount of oxygen. At this rate he was going to faint much quicker than his teammates.

"_Why?! Because your people burned down our country and made us your slaves. Because we decided to take a revenge and moved to Enobaria that made it nearly impossible for anyone to cross this swamp without passing by us. Because we loathe everything about this country and will make you realise just how much..."_

It was ironic, really. They had nothing to do with this country or this hatred in the first place - in fact, that had enough of that in their own world - and now, by saying something off-handed and supposedly innocent, they got themselves into this mess.

Shit, he was loosing consciousness.

One last glance to his right and he was finally able to see a mixture of pink and grey. Sakura and Kakashi... Colours didn't seem to move around much and instead stayed at the same place - unlike him, they coordinated straight away and limited their physical actions.

How were they gonna make it?..

When his arm was suddenly grabbed and tugged upwards - or downwards as his fuzzy mind couldn't comprehend the _whys _and _wheres _anymore - he simply closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious so he can throw a final kick when they stop moving.

Heck, he wasn't giving up.

* * *

**A/N:**

***Mbadala - Swahili for 'alternative'. Yep, Mdabala was their alternative as the main city was really far away, and they chose the closer town. Do you see how lazy I was? :D**

****Shui - Chinese for 'water' (at least that's what google translator told me lol). Erm, country of mermaids and other swimming... species? :D Jes, I don't have any imagination.**

*****Enobaria - my Hunger Games fangirl-self shouts in protest, but I just love this name so so much. Those of you who are familiar with the series would know what a badass she was, so her name used as a title for country at war, okay? Okay. (TFIOS tune playing at the background)**

**Couldn't help but include a LOTR moment in here - if you read or saw it, there's a moment of Frodo falling into the muck where all those ghostly figures surrounded him (when they were passing through the marshes) and Gollum saving his sorry ass haha**

**Emm, what with my busy A2 life and all, I will probably update once a week - on Monday at 12am, Greenwich time (which is basically now lol). How does this sound like?**


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